We help our clients drive their top-line sales by developing robust category strategies at both a strategic and tactical level.
We focus on two specific areas to achieve category growth:
In doing so, we can help retailers understand the impact your product will have at category level.
We can develop your category vision - a 3-5 year strategic growth plan for a defined category at market level. This will help you to communicate an engaging and consistent explanation of the category opportunity, how it can be exploited, and the impact it will have on both your business and that of your customer.
This can be used for all future proposals and negotiations and helps to build credibility and collaboration with your customers.
We will help you develop your strategic category vision using a three-stage process of discovery, development and the customer sell.
Discovery
The discovery phase ensures that we use all available data and research which will allow us to make informed decisions and recommendations further down the line. The process will include:
Development
After gathering data, we move on to developing your vision. To do this, we use a tried and trusted process which has been refined over a number of years. This will see us:
Customer Sell
The final stage is the development of a compelling customer sell. This takes the form of a visionary document and sales presentation that can be shared and actioned both internally and externally.
Where appropriate, we can also conduct training on Category Selling. This will ensure the revised approach gets maximum impact and the team have the right skills and competencies to drive it forward.
We can help you develop a model store - a short-term, tactical plan for immediate implementation in a specific format, channel or retailer. Those in charge of a brand must have a clear and defined view of what outstanding execution looks like, and we help you define this by using shopper insights and market data.
This is a collaborative process in which we work together with you to develop optimal in-store execution for a specific category and format combination. The main stages are:
Analysis
We use both qualitative and quantitative data to get a clear understanding of the challenges and opportunities.
Insights & Strategy
These fall naturally out of the analysis, the critical factor here is alignment on the core strategies before the detailed implementation plan is developed, this is a key enabler to landing a lasting change with the retailer or formats involved.
Detailed Solutions
This work will typically cover merchandising areas plans such as range, space, layout, as well as shopper communication and rollout planning.
Implementation
We assist you in both rolling this out and helping after implementation to ensure things run smoothly.
The overall goal is to create a specific, detailed and actionable merchandising plan and selling presentation, alongside a step by step process on how to achieve the changes that set you apart from the competitors in your marketplace.
Find out how we helped a leading healthcare provider revitalise their brand-led approach to selling with great success.
Read a case study